At auction: Leslie Hindman and the best job in the world

The auction industry had long been a male dominated place before Leslie
Hindman arrived. Here, she discusses finding hidden treasures and building
the biggest auction house in the American Midwest

Leslie Hindman set up her own auction house aged 28

By Bridget Galton

5:24PM GMT 06 Nov 2013

Auctioneer Leslie Hindman has "the best job in the world" because she never knows what treasures will cross her desk – from a lock of Elvis’s hair to a lost Van Gogh.

Her eponymous auction house holds 40 sales a year ranging from fine art to silver and vintage handbags.

“I love it,” says the 58-year-old. “It’s the most interesting job of anyone I know. I deal with a huge variety of items. Our clients and collectors are passionate about whatever they’re buying. Every day I go to someone’s house. It could be in a strange little neighbourhood to see an amazing pottery collection, or to a big house where they don’t own a single nice thing.”

Growing up in the Chicago suburbs, entering the male dominated auction world wasn’t an obvious career option.

It’s been an advantage being an entrepreneurial women, it meant I stood out “I wasn’t a particularly good student, but I was lucky to spend my summers in France and Belgium where I lived with families who exposed me to culture and the arts.”

Her life changed in 1978 when she landed a job assisting a trailblazing female auctioneer who was then heading up the newly opened branch of Sotheby’s in Chicago.

Four years later, when Sotheby’s stopped auctioning in Chicago, Leslie seized the opportunity to set up her own auction house aged just 28.

“I was lucky,” she says. Early success came in 1982 when one of her specialists travelled to Milwaukee to view Victorian furniture and spotted a Van Gogh still life with flowers hanging on the wall.

“They were a lovely couple who had no idea what the painting was. A banker relative in Switzerland had died and everything was shipped to the States. They’d had these paintings for years and said they’d sold others in a garage sale! The Van Gogh went for $1.43 million.”

Another memorable lot was Elvis memorabilia including an “icky clump of hair, cut just before he went into the army which went for $18,000 and a sweat-stained t-shirt that sold for $62,000.

“Relics have always been important and people care more about celebrity and popular culture these days.”

Leslie grew her business to become the biggest auction house in the American midwest – so big that after 16 years Sotheby’s bought her out.

It’s the most interesting job of anyone I know “In those days it was a really male dominated industry and even now most specialists are men. But it’s been a huge advantage being an entrepreneurial women, it meant I stood out. The press loved this 28-year-old opening a business.”

Tastes have changed over the decades. The 70s fashion for English and French period furniture and paintings has given way to a craze for mid-century modernist décor and contemporary art. People desire a “starker, minimalist look, and want an Andy Warhol and vintage couture and handbags, which are now a huge part of our business.”

But the biggest change is the way Leslie sells, thanks to the internet. Her sales have topped $50million since re-launching her business a decade ago, growing to an 80-strong staff.

“The world has become truly global. It’s changed our business because it’s a million-times easier to find a buyer.

Before the internet, if I had a major Hungarian painting I would phone Hungary to see who might buy it, and they’d bid by phone or fax. Now you put your inventory up and seconds later everyone knows what you have.

There are people in Hungary who have set up alerts just waiting for it. Seventy percent of our sales for Asian works of art are to China and Hong Kong.”

Websites such as Barnebys offer an online global shop window for Hindman’s auctions.

“Leslie Hindman Auctioneers offer an eclectic mix and is definitely one of the most exciting large auction houses on Barnebys” says Lotta Lindquist-Brosjo, Barnebys UK managing director.